Welcome to the Bay Area Chapter of SID
The Society for Information Display

March Seminar

Design of Holographic Display Systems Based on Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Suyeon Choi, Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University

March 20 2025

BA-SID Seminar Details

Date: Thursday, March 20th 2025

Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm PDT

Presentation Abstract

Spatial computing systems aim to seamlessly connect people in hybrid physical-digital spaces, offering experiences beyond the limits of our physical world. To this end, wearable displays are required to present perceptually realistic imagery indistinguishable from reality within visually and socially comfortable form factor. Holographic displays have the potential to achieve these goals elegantly by addressing practical challenges, including true 3D capabilities, vision correction, retinal resolution, small device form factors, low power consumption, as well as high brightness and color gamut. However, for decades, holographic displays has always been relegated to the status of future technology, due to several major challenges, including the lack of appropriate hardware architecture, poor image quality that never met the computer graphics standard, the fundamental tradeoff between algorithm runtime and achieved image quality, and the limited degrees of freedom to accurately depict 3D scenes.

In this talk, I will talk about how artificial intelligence (AI) can drive a paradigm shift in holographic display design by overcoming existing obstacles. First, I will give a gentle introduction to holographic displays and then present an algorithmic framework for these displays that approximates real-world scenes using partially coherent engines, along with a real-time rendering method. I will then introduce an AI-driven algorithmic approach focused on modeling and learning light transport in arbitrary optical systems with differentiable wave optics, effectively bridging the gap between simulated and physical models. Following this, I will discuss validation methods for holographic display rendering algorithms to ensure they provide perceptually realistic experiences. I will show some practical holographic display architectures designed for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications, achieving unprecedented form factors.

Dr. Suyeon Choi, Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University

Suyeon Choi is a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, working with Professor Gordon Wetzstein. His research focuses on developing computational optical systems at the intersection of graphics, computational optics, artificial intelligence, and applied vision science. Suyeon received a doctoral degree and a master’s degree from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University, all in electrical engineering.

In-Person Virtual Seminar Location

Time: 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm

DuPont Silicon Valley Technology Center
965 W. Maude Avenue Sunnyvale CA, 94085

The webinar will run in parallel with the in-person event as it did prior to the start of COVID19.

A recording of the webinar will be made available to SID members on www.sid.org.

Join BASID for a Networking Event

Pizza and beverages will be sponsored by BASID. Limited capacity of 65.

Ajit Ninan

BA-SID Professional Person Spotlight

Ajit Ninan
Sr. Director Display & Imaging at Meta

Ajit Ninan has a distinguished career in imaging and media spanning over 25 years. Mr. Ninan’s work at both startups and large companies is centered around building imaging, displays, and networking solutions. He has been part of standards efforts for image/video codecs and network protocols, such as JPEG and IEEE 802.17. His projects range from display systems, laser light sources, high dynamic range (HDR) displays, formats, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), audio solutions, and ecosystems. His work encompasses all aspects of imaging, from displays, optics, color, tone, and display mapping to computer vision algorithms.

Ninan’s contributions to MPEG solutions started with multiple chip rack solutions to shipping USB stick devices with multi-standard encoders built in as a testament to Moore’s Law. At Motorola, he helped build an optimized encoder solution that leveraged aspects of human perception to lower bitrates and preserve visual quality. Later, his career shifted towards displays when he joined Dolby to help diversify from audio into video. His accomplishments include Dolby Vision and building the first 4,000 nits HDR display “Pulsar,” which was recognized by the Advanced Imaging Society (AIS) with their Lumiere Award for “pioneering HDR in Hollywood,” and an Emmy Award for contributions to HDR. With more than 400 patents in imaging and entertainment, many centered around quantum dots displays, he helped drive the adoption of QD TVs in the industry. He built the first QD HDR monitor receiving the Society for Information Display’s Best in Show Award with Nanosys, leading the way for TV manufacturers like Vizio in using his designs. He was also an inventor and author of the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)-XT Part 2, also known as JPEG-HDR. 

His passion for this work continues into AR/VR and immersive imaging and human perception, driving architecture for display systems at Meta. He continues his involvement in SID and is a fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). Ninan has been discussing the challenges and considerations on redesigning displays at SID and other imaging forums since 2016 on with what he calls the Ninan’s Nine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcWEPSydrIo

He was recently featured in SID’s ID Asks and his personal story about resilience and persistence is told in this article.
https://sid.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/msid.1550

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